Gathering
by rosabelle317
Summary: [CTD fic, set during that last commercial break.] Zhane plucked a wildflower from a patch growing tangled in weeds, and held it up for Ashley to smell. It was sweet and clean, something like roses. Zhane hopped up onto the log beside Karone, and offered her the flower. "Here," he said. "I brought you something."


**Notes:** Hiiiiiiiii. So, it's certainly been awhile. I hope those of you I knew way back when have been doing well, and hello to the rest of you. :) I honestly wasn't sure I'd ever come back to PR, but, well. I've been feeling nostalgic lately, and this is where I met my fiancée(!). Starlit Purple and I got engaged in February, so... thanks for that one, fandom. I decided to start with something small instead of like... trying to remember wtf was going on in All I Am (I definitely, _definitely_ had a plan that I definitely should not have assumed I would remember). So here is a small snippet/missing-scene type thing. I also haven't watched these episodes in like... ten years, so. Wildly out of character? Possibly, but that never stopped me before!

... I still hate titles.

 **Gathering**

The first several times she had been here, it had been eerily silent. KO-35 had been laid to ruin in the war and though she couldn't see them, Ashley could feel the presence of ghosts all around her. Andros had been able to see them, she could tell. They had been his friends and his family, and they haunted him still.

Now that the planet was coming back to life, she breathed a little easier.

Ashley straightened up, stretched her arms over her head, and winced when she felt her back crack. She rolled her shoulders back as she lowered her arms, studying them ruefully. It was a warm day, and she'd left her jacket behind. The sleeves of her yellow shirt were pushed up to her elbows, and her forearms covered in dirt. To say nothing of what was beneath her nails.

Still, it was a gorgeous day, and the garden was soothing work. Carlos stopped by every hour or so to say hello as he helped ferry the newly-arrived supplies back and forth. He'd brought a crate of seeds by earlier. She'd lost track of TJ and Cassie after breakfast—TJ was serving food at what she thought was some kind of community center, and Cassie was helping take down the names of the returning people and inventory the deliveries arriving from off-world. The city wasn't _that_ big, but they were on the other end of it. She'd catch up with them all at dinner.

"Ash!" She looked around at the sound of her name. "Over here!"

She spotted him then, a flash of brightness amidst the mostly-dark colors around her. Like her, he wore no jacket, and his hair was rumpled. When he was sure she'd seen him, he slowed to a walk.

"Here," Zhane said when he was near enough, tossing her a metal bottle that was cool to the touch. "I brought you something."

"My hero," she said, and kissed his cheek before she twisted open the bottle. She drank, long deep swallows of cold water that tasted better than anything. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, you know," he said, giving her a grin and a shrug. "Keeping Andros out of trouble is a full-time job."

That it was. They exchanged wry looks, and Ashley laughed.

"Anything to report?"

"All quiet." He shook his head. "As far as we can tell, Zordon's wave reached all the way out here. For now."

It was a sobering thought, but as much as she wanted to believe that Zordon's sacrifice had been enough forever, luck and unexplained Eltaran magic could only account for so much. Even she, the optimist, didn't believe that evil was truly _gone_. They had only beaten it for now. It would come again—but they would meet it when it did.

"Where's Andros now?"

"Still with Kinwon," he said. "He's not sure when they'll be done which, I think, leaves _you_ without a lunch date."

He winked. Ashley swatted his arm and laughed again. "Where are you taking me this time?"

"Her name is Elisha," he told her. "She just came yesterday."

"Another one of your girlfriends?" she teased.

"She was my neighbor growing up," he told her. "My grandparents would leave me with her sometimes."

Amused, she took another drink of water. "She was your babysitter?"

He shrugged. "I told her I'd meet her at the center for lunch. She told me to bring Andros too, but you're better company."

That was a rather low bar to meet. "I'm flattered."

"Karone too," he said. "Where'd she go, anyway?"

Ashley's smile faded slightly, as she turned to look in the direction that the other girl had gone off in, an hour before. Zhane followed her gaze towards the park, sighing. "Again?"

"She said she needed some time." Ashley frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. She knew how much time to give Andros, but if anyone could out-brood him, Karone could.

Zhane seemed to be thinking the same, but his hesitation was shorter lived. "Come on," he said, touching her arm. "See if they can spare you awhile. If she doesn't want us there, she can always shoot us."

She didn't, thankfully. The park was overgrown from neglect, but Karone wasn't hard to find. She was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree, dressed in the flight suit they had gifted her after she'd defected from Dark Specter.

She was facing away from them, but she turned her head in their direction as they approached. Zhane plucked a wildflower from a patch growing tangled in weeds, and held it up for Ashley to smell. It was sweet and clean, something like roses.

The flower reminded her of the garden and she realized belatedly that they'd forgotten the water bottle when they'd left to find Karone. She guessed there was no point in going back for it now.

Zhane hopped up onto the log beside Karone, and offered her the flower.

"Here," he said. "I brought you something."

Ashley looked down to hide her smile, and settled herself on Karone's other side.

"Did you." Karone's face remained pensive, but even she looked amused. "I've been here before."

"As a kid?" Ashley asked. "You remember?"

"I asked Andros to meet me here once." She shook her head. "Now I don't know, if I just know it from then, or if..."

"If you recognize it, from before?"

"Andros asked me that too." She smiled faintly. "It feels like... something out of a dream. I hear... my mom?" She furrowed her brow. "She sounds like DECA."

They both looked at Zhane, who shrugged. "Don't tell Andros I told you," he said at last. "But it was just us for awhile, and he missed your parents. I asked DECA to help him. She did."

"She made herself sound like your mom?"

"It worked," Zhane said, and shrugged again.

"She can do that?" Ashley asked, surprised.

"She has a holographic interface too," he informed her. "Andros must've disabled it sometime while I was dead."

"You weren't dead," she said automatically.

"You sound like Andros," he told her, and smiled. "But yes. DECA can do a lot of things. She speaks over three thousand languages, you know."

Ashley laughed.

"So DECA..." Karone hesitated. "She cares for Andros."

"Yeah," Ashley said. "She looked out for all of us, really, but Andros is her favorite."

Karone nodded thoughtfully. "She's not so different, then. Than Ecliptor."

"You miss him?" Ashley asked gently, though it wasn't really a question.

"I never really had anyone else," she said. She twirled the flower Zhane had given her, rolling the stem slowly back and forth between her fingers. "He raised me. I never had a friend besides him."

"You've got a lot of friends now," Ashley said, touching her hand. "We can't take his place, but we're here."

"I loved Ecliptor," Karone said. "I think that bothers Andros."

"Maybe," Zhane said. "But that's his problem."

"He's your best friend."

"Doesn't mean it's not true. Look," he said. "Andros and I have been through a lot. He's my best friend. But he can be..." He couldn't seem to decide. "Be _you_ , not the idea you think he has of you."

"I don't think he knows what to do, either," Ashley said, shifting uncomfortably. They hadn't really had much time to talk, her and Andros, but she would have to go back to Earth eventually, and he... She'd always known that KO-35 was his home. "I don't think he thought about what came after."

"Imagine that," Zhane said dryly. "Andros didn't think ahead."

To Ashley's real surprise, Karone actually laughed out loud. "It was always so _easy_ ," she said. "There were times when even I thought he _had_ to know he was being set up, and he always just—I guess we weren't always good about that, either. He crashed one of Dark Specter's banquets once. I knew as soon as I saw him, but no one else seemed to."

"The cloak blends in better on Onyx," Zhane agreed. "Not flashy enough for the grand monarch of evil."

"Who knew you were such an expert?" Ashley teased.

"I have many hidden talents," he said, and she leaned across Karone to smack his arm.

They were interrupted by a flash of red somewhere to her left. She was long used to it, but somehow Andros's sudden appearance startled her.

"Hey," she said brightly. "I thought you were with Kinwon. How'd you know we were here?"

"DECA," he said simply and frowned, studying their surroundings. He seemed half puzzled, half concerned. "We finished early. What are you doing out here?"

"Making fun of you," Zhane informed him cheerfully. "I have lots of stories."

Ashley laughed and slid off of the log, going to his side. She slid an arm around his waist. The kissing was still kind of new for them, and she didn't know for sure how he felt about doing that with an audience. "How was your morning?"

"Good." His arm settled around her shoulders, and he gave her that crooked smile of his. "Zhane lies, you know."

"Mm." Ashley hummed neutrally.

"It sounded real to me," Karone agreed, her smile a little quieter, a little shyer. Ashley didn't think they'd had time to get to the teasing stage of their relationship, before Karone had gone back to the Dark Fortress.

"Oh." Andros seemed surprised too, but his smile widened, clearly pleased with that development.

"C'mon," Zhane said, standing too, and coming to elbow Andros in the ribs. "We've got lunch plans."


End file.
